Student Media

Graduate earns elite study trip

Rochelle Arellano '08 '11 (left) at her desk during a student teaching stint at Princeton High School. With her is junior Ashley Scherbing, 17.

Come July, Rochelle Arellano will be living large in Virginia with some of the leading American historians.

The Zimmerman resident and Spring Semester graduate will attend a July 17-22 George Washington Summer Residential Teachers’ Institute at Mount Vernon.

Arellano is one of 93 people to earn a seat at the prestigious institute, which is managed each summer by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, a private, non-profit organization founded in 1853.

The 28-year-old wife and mother of two believes her application leapt off the pile because of her extensive participation in workshops, training sessions and conferences, including the August 2010 Minnesota Council on Economic Education’s Conference on Teaching Economics and Personal Finance.

Her resume also includes testimonials from students, including this gem from a youngster at Sartell Middle School: “You’re really confident and know how to run the show. You’re really laid back and are easy to talk to, so now you’re my favorite student teacher out of all of them."

Derek Hasselberg '99, her supervising teacher Princeton
High School, also has praise for Arellano: "Rochelle has a positive attitude and brings this to the classroom and is
always able to meet the students with a friendly smile and
conversation. She truly enjoys working with the students. She is very
organized and has a great work ethic."

Arellano completed a 16-week student teaching experience in Princeton May 2, then graduated May 8 with a bachelor’s degree in
social studies. She is presently job hunting.

Among the scholars scheduled to present at Mount Vernon are Ira Berlin, Cokie Roberts and Harold Holzer.

Berlin is a prize-winning University of Maryland professor who wrote a 2010 book about the four migrations that shaped African American life. Roberts, a broadcast journalist and author, wrote a 2004 book that discusses contributions of the wives, daughters, sisters and mothers of the Founding Fathers. Holzer is one of the leading scholars of Abraham Lincoln and has authored, co-authored and edited 40 books.

Arellano also holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from St. Cloud State.

She was among 1,068 undergraduate students and 209 graduate students who earned degrees at Spring Commencement.